


Shards in the sand

by Stockholmsyndrom



Series: Royai Week 2019 [5]
Category: Fullmetal Alchemist - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe, F/M, Light Angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-14
Updated: 2019-06-14
Packaged: 2020-05-07 14:27:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,819
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19211293
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Stockholmsyndrom/pseuds/Stockholmsyndrom
Summary: A mysterious woman visits the bar and has some unfinished business with Roy. Where does he know her from? And why is she so angry?





	Shards in the sand

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt: unfinished business

"Roy Mustang?"

 

Roy turned around on his bar stool, an unlit cigarette dangling from his lips. The whisky tumbler in front of him had just been refilled. 

 

Madame Christmas' at 10 on a Friday night was bustling and loud, patrons swarming around the girls like flies. Most of the alcohol was poured on Fridays, setting up the minds of the men for the weekend. And still, the voice carried over the noise of the busy bar - clear like cut glass.

 

He set his eyes on the most beautiful woman that he'd ever seen in his life. Her blonde hair flowed around her shoulders like a halo, the light of the lamps catching in her golden tresses. 

 

Usually he would already have a charming remark on his lips, ready to enthrall the beautiful lady and invite her for a drink and hopefully a night of tossing in the sheets. But this time his mind came up empty, his mouth dry despite just having had a sip of whisky. He desperately searched through his memories trying to identify the woman as she strode purposefully toward him. He had seen her before, hadn't he? There was something in her dark honey eyes that tugged at him. He knew that determination and he had seen her pouty lips before. But for the love of God, he couldn't come up with the right answer.

 

"Yes ma'am," was all his usually quick and slick mind came up with.

 

The woman slid next to him, her gaze set on the bottles on the shelves behind the bar, roaming over the labels. She didn't spare him another glance.

 

"I will have a Cabernet Sauvignon."

 

It was Vanessa's turn to tend the bar. Her eyes darted between Roy and the mysterious woman, one eyebrow cocked. She didn't comment it any further though, and simply poured the blonde a glass of the desired wine.

 

"May I ask who I have the pleasure of talking to? And what a pleasure it is..." Roy couldn't stop himself from letting the last part slip out. His brain had started to come back, yet it was stuck on "obnoxious idiot". Not quite the approach he would have preferred.

 

"I am here to take back what you stole," was her only answer.

 

Roy blinked in surprise.

 

"What are you talking about? I didn't steal anything."

 

The woman inclined her neck just slightly, her piercing brown eyes pinning him with the intensity of their glare. There was just the slightest smidge of fury shining through her carefully guarded eyes.

 

Roy felt a shiver running through his bones.

 

"Don't lie to yourself. We both know that when you left, you took his secret research notes with you."

 

Roy’s eyes widened as everything finally fell into place.

 

"Miss Hawkeye?"

 

Her name was a faint breath gliding over his dried out lips.

 

The woman, Miss Hawkeye - _Riza_ , his heart reminded him - nodded and took a sip from her glass.

 

It was a painful treat to watch her. She had matured so much since he had last seen her. That had been on his last day at the Hawkeye estate, when he had packed everything and left in a hurry, tears of shame and frustration burning in his eyes.

 

 

 

 

_"You will never be an Alchemist, you useless fool!"_

 

Berthold Hawkeye's last words to him had stung more than the switch he took to his hands when he made a mistake. And mistakes he made a lot.

 

Riza had been a small little weed, she couldn't have been older than 13, maybe 14 when he left.

 

He still remembered her large brown eyes looking at him shyly as she half hid in the doorway to his room, too afraid to come in.

 

"Where are you going, Mister Mustang?" she had asked with that soft spoken voice of hers.

 

She always became small and weak whenever her father was in one of his moods. Gone was the self assured and confident little tomboy that he had grown fond of over his stay in the house. Her demure posture and her small voice were something Berthold had taught her.

 

He hated the man for that.

 

"I am going back to Central. He refuses to teach me anymore. I don't know what his problem with the military is, but that man is crazy!" he huffed, his tone harsh from all his pent up frustration. He needed a target to direct his anger onto. But he held himself back. Riza was not the right target, she didn't deserve it.

 

"Will you come back?"

 

"Your father made it very clear that I am no longer welcome in his house," Roy snapped as he closed his suitcase with more force than was necessary.

 

He needed to get out. He wanted to kick and scream and punch something and that was not something the young Miss Hawkeye should see.

 

"Thank you for everything, Riza. I am sorry."

 

Roy held his head high as he left the Hawkeye estate forever. He knew that the old Alchemist would watch him from behind his small study window. He would not give the man the satisfaction of seeing him upset.

 

Never once looking back he didn't see the small girl in the threshold of the house he was leaving quietly shedding a tear.

 

 

 

 

He watched her elegant neck tilt back ever so slightly as she took a sip from her drink. Her eyes were closed and he could imagine that it was to more fully appreciate the taste of the luscious wine on her tongue.

 

"It has been a while, hasn't it Mister Mustang?"

 

Roy almost recoiled from the sharpness in her voice. She was like glass shards hidden in the sand. All perfection and smoothness on the surface, but take one wrong step and he would cut himself on her raw edges, bleeding all over her, unable to move on. But he knew that it was his own fault for having shattered her in the first place.

 

"Yes. Yes it has. I am terribly sorry for that..."

 

Riza regarded him with cold calculation in her eyes. Roy swallowed. He had never seen her this harsh. She had always been fierce and strong, but there always had been a softness hidden underneath her surface, desperate to come out. He thought she might have buried it even deeper. Maybe too deep for anyone to reach.

 

"Don't bother. The research notes. I want them back."

 

"Did your father send you?" Roy asked, considering himself sharp and witty.

 

If Berthold really wanted his notes back so badly he could come himself. He never bothered with anything personally. Roy had always resented him for that. He had always relayed on his daughter for everything: She cooked, she cleaned, kept house, fed him and his apprentices, nursed him when he was sick and dealt with anything that the great Berthold Hawkeye deemed to be beneath him. Which turned out to be anything that wasn't directly related to alchemy. And even then it had to be especially challenging for him to even consider. A simple broken roof was not something that Berthold Hawkeye would waste his alchemy on to fix. He didn’t care that his daughter had to crawl onto the roof and fix it herself, so that the rain wouldn’t wet her bed. He also didn’t care about how she had to do her chores with bruised fingers, seeing that she had been too inexperienced to wield the hammer without hurting herself.

 

This time Riza turned her whole body toward him, facing him head on. Roy could have lost himself in the way her high brows arched gracefully above her eyes. Her golden fringe tickled the peaks of her cheekbones, highlighting the heart shape of her face. When had the little tomboy become so beautiful? 

 

"My father is dead." 

 

Everything went deadly quiet. Roy was sure he would have heard a pin drop. He stared at the young woman in front of him and mentally punched himself. Way to put your foot in your mouth, Mustang. 

 

"Shit, Riza, I'm sorry -" 

 

"I don't care. Just give back what isn't yours. You don't need his research notes, you don't have the key to his alchemy-" 

 

"The key? Do you have the key? Riza, if you do, do you know what-" 

 

"Don't!" 

 

Roy looked surprised at the force in her voice. Her tone was harsh, but he could see the cold mask on her face crumble. There was a haunted look in her eyes, and it made Roy feel very sick. 

 

"His alchemy... It's dangerous... Too dangerous. Please. I am just trying to make up for the horrors that he caused. Leave it be. Look into something else. Flame alchemy... It's pure destruction."

 

"So he finished his research?" 

 

Riza let her gaze drop to the wooden floor boards. Her gaze turned hollow and she seemed to be far away. 

 

"He should never have completed it. It's a curse." 

 

Roy watched in horror as this strong woman in front of him reached for her glass with trembling hands. She quickly downed its contents and when she looked up at him her eyes had changed. 

 

The softness hovering just behind her thin and hollowed out walls of defense was shaking him to the very core. 

 

"What did he do to you?" he asked, his voice hoarse and struggling to get past the lump in his throat. 

 

Riza turned her gaze away from him again, her shoulders hunching ever so slightly. She dug her nails into her forearms and squeezed her eyes shut. 

 

"I am the key," she breathed. 

 

It was all Roy needed to hear. Even before Riza could finish her breath he had slid out of his seat and then he was next to her, his arms sliding around her and pulling her against his chest. That was all it took for the spell on Riza to break. She took a shuddering breath and grabbed him by the shirt, her fingers digging into the fine material. It felt to Roy as if she was squeezing his very soul. 

 

"I'm so sorry that I left you..." 

 

He breathed into her hair, the apology long overdue and absolutely useless at the same time. He knew he could never make it up to her. No matter how many lifetimes he would have, he could never undo the wrongs he did to her. 

 

He would never be able to go back to that day and stop himself from leaving the Hawkeye estate. He would never be able to turn around and ask her to come with him, to leave behind the dark shadow that had taken the shape of her father. 

 

She sobbed into his shoulder then. Roy tightened his arms around her. He cursed the name of Berthold Hawkeye and silently swore to himself to never let go of Riza again. He would protect her. 

 

And maybe one day she would forgive him. 

 

 


End file.
